Abstract
This paper provides estimates of the correlation in lifetime earnings
between fathers and sons. Intergenerational data from the National
Longitudinal Survey are used. Earlier studies, conducted for the
United States, report elasticities of children's earnings with respect
to parent's earnings of 0.2 or less, suggesting extensive integenerational
mobility. These estimates, however, are biased downward by error-contaminated
measures of lifetime economic status. Estimates presented in this
paper correct for the problem of measurement error and find the
intergenerational correlation in income to be on the order of 0.4.
This suggests considerably less intergenerational mobility than
previously believed.
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